A ghost story of the most unusual kind, The Telling is a thrilling - and sometimes chilling - tale about two women, separated by almost two centuries, grappling with change and loss.
After her mother dies, Rachel sets off alone to pack up and sell off the remnants of her family's isolated country house. But from the moment she steps through the front door, she feels that the house contains more than she had expected. Generations earlier, a young housemaid, Lizzy, called the same dwelling home. On course for a life of service no different from her mother and her mother's mother before her, Lizzy's world is upended by the arrival of a mysterious lodger. Interweaving the two narratives, Jo Baker - best-selling author of Longbourn - brings these women, both struggling against their stations and their duties, vividly to life.
"A delicate, atmospheric ghost story with satisfying layers of insight and substance." - Kirkus
"A treat to read." - Daily Mail (UK)
"What Jo Baker has done, with remarkable dexterity, is to make this ghost story intensely intimate." -The Daily Telegraph (UK)
This information about The Telling was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jo Baker was born in Lancashire and educated in Oxford and Belfast. The Undertow is her first publication in the United States. She is the author of three previous novels published in the United Kingdom: Offcomer, The Mermaid's Child, and The Telling. She lives in Lancaster.
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.